Maria Murnane worked in public relations for nearly 10 years before finally admitting to herself that she wasn't happy. Knowing she would be miserable if she stayed on the career path she was on, she quit her job -- without a clue what she would do next, and stressed out that she didn't really know how to do anything else.

She went to Argentina by herself for what was supposed to be a two-week trip before facing real life again. Instead, she ended up living in Buenos Aires for a year, playing soccer for one of the most famous clubs in the world, and doing something she had always dreamed about, which was to write a funny novel based on her experiences as a single professional woman in San Francisco. She has dedicated the award-winning novel, "Perfect on Paper," to any woman who has ever been on a really bad date or realized halfway through the workday that her skirt is on backward.

Maria was a Regents' and Chancellor's Scholar at UC Berkeley, where she graduated with high honors in English and Spanish. She also received a master's degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University. She currently lives in New York and recently launched a line of greeting cards called Honey Notes, which also appear in her book.